With Josh Heupel getting closer to announcing who his starting quarterback will be for the Tennessee football team this season, Nico Iamaleava is preparing for Year 1 in the Big Ten. Nico is gone, shockingly leaving Knoxville during spring ball.
Rumors started swirling that Iamaleava and his camp were looking for a new NIL deal, while the quarterback said this move was all about playing closer to home. Regardless of why he left, CBS Sports' Matt Zenitz has spoken to multiple sources and the feeling he's getting from some is that the Vols will regret letting him walk. Could that decision end up haunting Heupel?
“I had somebody mention… Tennessee is gonna have some regrets when they see what Nico Iamaleava does (at @UCLAFootball).” -- @mzenitz 👀
— CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB) August 12, 2025
"I have talked to multiple people at UCLA and outside of UCLA that say Nico is worth 2 or 3 wins at least." -- @chris_hummer pic.twitter.com/PUKVO40qMB
Nico Iamaleava is putting on a show for UCLA during camp
Iamaleava has been hard at work during UCLA fall camp and the reports out of Los Angeles are that he's putting on a show and quickly winning over his teammates. That's fine for him, but the fact that he's doing that in SoCal instead of Tennessee is rough.
He made his decision and now Tennessee is ready to move forward. Which quarterback will end up taking his place? That's still unknown, as Heupel has a tough decision coming. Joey Aguilar, Jake Merklinger and George MacIntyre continue to battle things out.
With the second UT scrimmage of the summer on the way, the hope is that Heupel will be ready to make his final call shortly after - there's also a tough Tennessee center decision on the way for the coaching staff leading up to the Week 1 meeting with Syracuse.
Soon enough, we'll find out who wins the QB1 job to officially take over the offense for Iamaleava. If Nico goes on to be electric this year with the Bruins in the Big Ten, plenty of people will be left wondering what could have been had he stayed with the Vols for at least one more season.
At the same time, Heupel sent a statement to the rest of the locker room by moving forward without his former 5-star QB. Something tells us he won't have any regrets over how things went down with Iamaleava earlier this year.